A novel data-driven triangular-type staircase layout design in personnel safety evacuation in high-rise buildings

Abstract

When an accident or crisis occurs in a high-rise building, evacuation by stairs is the most recognized safe evacuation method, where the design of stair layouts greatly impacts the economy and safety of high-rise buildings. Therefore, an economical and reasonable staircase layout design is especially important. Most previous studies tend to reduce the number of evacuation routes due to economic considerations alone, which is an unreasonable unilateral consideration. In this sense, a reasonable staircase layout should consider economic and evacuation efficiency. To address this issue, this study proposes a new evacuation time calculation model, which is then combined with an economic model to develop a bi-objective optimization model. After that, a set of solutions that achieve different trade-offs between economy and safety are obtained, allowing for a staircase arrangement that meets safety requirements while minimizing economic investment. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed model is verified by a real case study, where the Pareto front surface is obtained to facilitate decision-making for stakeholders with different risk preferences. The numerical results also allow decision-makers to make informed decisions considering both economics and safety in stairway settings.